Tea Partiers! Conservatives in disguise. Tea Partiers! More than meets the eye.

One of the striking ironies of Fox News running with the statistic that 47% of Americans might not owe federal income taxes is that Fox News also moonlights as the unofficial station of the Tea Party movement, which clamors for lower taxes. You might ask: half of the country pays no income tax, how much lower do you want? Here's a more troubling point: if the Tea Party movement has a similar share of Americans making under $50,000 as the broader population (as a recent Gallup poll suggests), then why is this movement rallying under the banner "Taxed Enough Already!" when half of them aren't taxed at all?

Forty-five percent of self-identified "Tea Partiers" make less than $50,000 per year, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll. Similarly, 50% of the total population makes less than $50,000 in the same poll. Despite this author's lack of direct access to the tax returns of the Tea Party movement, it seems safe to assume that if about half the country avoids federal income taxes, a similar percentage of the Tea Party movement gets away with the same even as they march and scream about their tax burden."

They're not a political party. They're not rational. They're conservatives who went, "Hmm, this Republicanism is too cold. And this Libertarianism is too confusing! But this Tea Party is just right!"

I'm beginning to think that the Tea Party is the political barrel that everyone who doesn't have an opinion falls into. It's nice and convenient for them to get upset about income taxes, after all, because hey I want more money cause I'm underprivelaged! It reminds me of how recording artists ten years ago couldn't tell you why piracy or Napster affects their incomes, but goddamn it it does and they know it and shut up, ugly!